Saturday, March 6, 2010

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Old Tappan's Chris Besserer lining up the three-pointer that sent the game into a third overtime. Sometime later, the Knights had a 98-93 win over Passaic Valley in a 5 overtime classic in the North 1, Group 3 state sectional semifinal on Friday night.

OLD TAPPAN -- If it was a game of chess it would have been declared a stalemate. If it was a horse race it would have been declared a dead heat and both teams would have grabbed a share of the winner’s purse. But because it was the semifinals of the North 1, Group 3 state sectional boys basketball tournament and because only one team could advance to play Teaneck in Monday’s section final, the packed house at Northern Valley Regional Old Tappan High School was along for some kind of ride.

Overtime? We got that. Two overtimes? Check. Three overtimes? That’s nothing. Four overtimes? Okay, we are getting close. Five overtimes, yes, five overtimes and two-and-a-half hours is what it took for Old Tappan, the No. 2 seed, to outlast No. 3 Passaic Valley, 98-93, on Friday night.

Best game ever played in the history of the New Jersey playoff basketball? You’d be hard pressed to find another one like it, just ask Old Tappan head coach Dennis Rossi, who has been coaching on the high school level for 46 years.

“It ranks in the Top 5,” said Rossi, who put it up there with two games he coached while at Bergenfield, two losses in sectional semifinals, one in overtime and one in double overtime at the buzzer in back-to-back years; the Old Tappan-Teaneck game in last season’s section semifinal and a game he coached at St. Joseph in 1981 in Toms River that his team lost on a block/charge call in the last five seconds.

Get the point? This was a classic high school basketball game and, in the interest of getting this story posted in some reasonable amount of time, we’ll wrap-up regulation before we get to the previously mentioned five overtime periods.

Olumide Onajide scored 8 of his 22 points in the third overtime as Passaic Valley nearly had the game won.

Passaic Valley scored the first six points of the game on two Nick DiCristina three-pointers and the 6-0 advantage matched the Hornets' largest lead of the game. They also led 16-10 on a Dave Clough basket with 2:31 to go in the first quarter, but the game was tied at 17 after the first quarter, which turned out to be a recurring theme for the next two hours and 15 minutes as it was tied after six of the nine times a buzzer sounded to end a period.

Old Tappan had two five-point leads in the second quarter at 22-17 and 26-21 which represented its biggest spread until it went up 92-84 in the fifth and final overtime. Old Tappan led 28-27 at halftime, 41-39 after the third quarter and was up 51-49 after Shane McLaughlin made a steal and a layup to tie the game and then two free three throws to put the Knights up with 3:04 to go. There were only two more points scored in regulation, two Dom Coiro free throws with 33 seconds left, and then the fun really began as the two teams headed into the first overtime tied at 55.

Although the teams scored only four points apiece in the first overtime, it didn’t mean there weren’t some key plays that almost or could have ended the game and certainly affected the rest of it. Of the 12 combined free throws taken by the two teams, only six of them went in the basket. But McLaughlin hit two with 58 seconds left to give Old Tappan a 54-53 lead and it also marked the fifth foul for Anthony DiSanti, who became the first of the six Passaic Valley players and eight in the game to foul out.

Passaic Valley missed a shot on its next possession, Old Tappan grabbed the rebound and, it if could have held onto it, had a chance to win right there. PV would have been forced to put the Knights on the line, but instead Coiro stole a tipped outlet pass and went hard to the basket, which did two things. A) it got him to line where he made both free throws to give PV a 55-54 lead with 39 seconds to go and B) it sent McLaughlin, Old Tappan’s junior point guard who had scored 21 points, to the bench with his fifth foul.

Thomas Messina finished with a game-high 29 points for Old Tappan, which will face Teaneck in Monday's section final.

OT’s Nick Bianco made one of two free throws to retie the game with 23 seconds left, before PV had a chance to win it that went by the boards with the missed front end of a one-and-one with 2.3 seconds to go and the teams headed to overtime No. 2 all knotted at 55.

Keep in mind that to this point in the game, 36 minutes in, Chris Besserer had scored just five points, all of them in the first quarter on a three-pointer and two free throws. But he was about to be heard from…big time.

He made a driving layup to open the second overtime and Thomas Messina made back-to-back baskets, one on a pretty lead pass from Sam Elias on the wing and the other on a putback, to give Old Tappan a 61-57 lead, but Mike Governali answered right back for PV with one of his six three-pointers. Trailing by two after Elias made a free throw, the Hornets ran off six straight points, fouled out Bianco in the process and claimed a 65-62 lead when DiCristina turned a turnover into two made free throws with 46 seconds left.

The Old Tappan deficit was still three at 66-63 when DiCristina made another free throw with 15.8 seconds to go, but with five seconds left and options dwindling, Besserer rose up from the wing and buried the most crucial shot of his career, a three-pointer that tied the game at 66 and forced overtime No. 3.

PV point guard Dom Coiro was brilliant all night, finishing with 17 points.

“I am too tired right now to really even talk, but on that play I was a shooter on the floor, I got the open look and I had to make it. I didn’t think about the situation, I just shot the ball and it went in,” said Besserer, who started the season as the JV point guard, reached the varsity when McLaughlin missed five games with an ankle injury, forced himself into the rotation with his play and is now an indispensible part of a team heading for a section final. “I worked hard all season, stuck it out on JV, got into the rotation and now look where I am…playing in the big games and it’s still hard to believe.”

The role of best player on the floor that Besserer played in the second overtime was taken over by Coiro in the third OT. His four assists, all on drives to the basket and dishes and all finished by Olumide Onajide, gave PV a 74-70 lead with 1:20 left on the clock before Messina’s turn around jumper got OT back to within two points with just under a minute left.

Coiro made one of two free throws the next time down the floor leaving Old Tappan three points short, but that gap would be closed once again by Besserer, who with 12 seconds left, pump-faked a defender at the top of the key and calmly knocked down the three-pointer that tied things up again at 75.

“On that one I knew the kid was going to go for the block,” said Besserer. “I knew the pump fake would work, so I used it and put it in.”

OT's Shane McLaughlin finished with 21 points despite spending the final 16:39 on the bench after fouling out.

Old Tappan survived Passaic Valley’s final look of the third overtime, a three-point attempt by Coiro with two seconds left that went halfway down before deciding to spin out. Besserer opened the fourth overtime with a three-pointer and Old Tappan held a four-point lead at 81-77 with 53 seconds left, but you just got the feeling that the game was not ready to be over, especially when Onajide grabbed an offensive rebound and kicked the ball back to a wide open Coiro, who the whole gym knew was going bury the open three. He did and the Hornets were back to within one.

One Besserer made free throw with 25 seconds left weas trumped by the two Coiro made nine seconds later to tie the score at 82 and Old Tappan’s final shot of the fourth overtime was off the mark.

Hello extra session No. 5, the final chapter…

Both teams were well into their benches by this point and Michael Matteo came off Old Tappan’s to knock down a three-pointer from the wing. Just 17 seconds had been played in the fifth overtime when Matteo made that shot, but unbeknownst to everyone at the time, Old Tappan had just taken the lead for good.

“I’ve been behind this team all season coming in off the bench and it felt great just to pitch in in a game like this,” said Matteo, a junior who went on to describe the play. “It was a reversal. Chris [Besserer] reversed it from the left to the right wing, it went to the middle and then back to the left where I was and I just took it and shot. I was 0 for 5 in the game and I was going to hit one sometime and I am glad that was it."

Tom Gaccione answered briefly for PV as his elbow jumper got the Hornets back to within one point, but then four straight points by Messina, two free throws by Besserer and another by Johnathan Daniele gave Old Tappan a 92-84 lead and reality had set in for the Hornets.

Mike Governali scored 19 points and had 6 three-pointers for PV, which finished its season with a 19-5 record.

“There were a million times I thought we 100-percent had it and I never thought that we were going to lose this game until I saw that we were down eight with 40 seconds to go,” said Governali, who scored 19 points, one of PV’s four double digit scorers. “We played a great game, but Old Tappan and No. 31 [Besserer], I don’t even know his name, just hit shot after shot. He’s the hero of this game and we can’t take nothing out of it. With the team we have and the way we play, we feel like we deserve a section title and now we are done.”

Done, but not forgotten as Passaic Valley was brilliant for the full 52 minutes. Onajide led the Hornets with 22 points and did it coming off the bench. Governali scored all of his 19 points from behind the arc plus one free throw, DiCristina had four three-pointers among his 21 points and Coiro’s entertaining battle against McLaughlin and then Besserer ended with a 17-point night.

PV head coach Rob Carcich knew that he had been a part of one of the greatest state playoff games in New Jersey history, he has been there before, and was more than gracious in meeting with a reporter afterwards, but the words just wouldn’t come out.

“I don’t even know what to say, I really don’t,” is all he could muster. “There is something to be taken out of this from our side, but I just can’t think of it now. We finished 19-5, one of the best seasons ever at PV and maybe that will sink in later, but we are just going to not be happy tonight.”

Old Tappan (21-3) was happy on Friday night, albeit exhausted.

“You know at the end of the year when you do [The Barton’s Best Awards] for Best Game of the Year? That was this game,” said Messina, speaking of NorthJerseySports.com’s year end awards extravaganza. “It was long, real long and I was tired after the fourth quarter, the end of a regular game. It was incredible. All of the threes, all of the shots at the buzzer, all of the foul shots…everything. We played our hearts out and so did they. As a senior I just wanted to leave it all out there and that is what I did and so did everybody else who played on both teams tonight.”

Messina led all scorers with 29 points and Besserer scored 22 of his 27 points in overtimes 2 through 5. McLaughlin scored 21 points despite spending the final 16:39 of the game on the bench with fouls and Elias added 11 to make it four Golden Knights in double figures. Bianco added 5 points, Matteo had 3 and Tim Brophy and Daniele shared the other two points for Old Tappan, which moves to Monday’s state sectional final and a rematch with Teaneck, which knocked off West Milford on Friday night.

“Teaneck is very good as you well know, so we are just going to enjoy tonight and start getting ready for them tomorrow,” said Rossi. “It’s going to be a very tough game, we know that, but we are going in on a high.”

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